Happy Saturday/Sunday On The Beach!

rebel · 08-30-2008, 10:21 PM

Barb, I'm watching on this BB just since you aren't so much in the other place I know you from. It sounds like things are a little better. I'm keeping you and Brian in my thoughts, and sending good vibes your way.

Ruthxxx · 08-30-2008, 11:09 PM

Oh my! I am so worried about our Southern chickies! Prayers and good vibes that this damned thing eases off before it hits.

Please check back in when you can.

zeffryn · 08-30-2008, 11:19 PM

Anybody heard from Cat? I hope she and her family are doing well.......we should start feeling its effects tomorrow afternoon and it should be hitting in the houma area on Monday afternoon.

Good luck, girls. xoxo

femmecreole · 08-30-2008, 11:40 PM

Zeff, I'm here and freaking out....calmly, but I'm freaking out.

My daughter just HAD to leave to go back to california, so my husband just left with her to take her into N.O. to the airport. The traffic coming this way is bumper to bumper and it may take him many many hours...maybe 10...who knows.. to get back up here. But with contraflow starting at 4 in the morning, it was now or never. her fllight leaves at 2 tomorrow afternoon and with no food available at the airport, I sent her off with enough food for a few people.
I'm really worried about him being able to fill up the car again when he gets back..

When the mayor gave his "speech" a little while ago, it scared the tar out of me. I don't freak out over hurricanes as I have been through so many of them, but he said this is "The mother of all hurricanes" and now, yeah, I'm freaked. We are still staying. But if the power is going to be out for weeks like it was after K, we will go to north carolina to my sister's house or go to Jackson mississippi to stay with cousins.

I am not in harms way as far as flooding, tidal surges etc. I am about 30 miles north of Lake Ponchartrain which is the closest large body of water. What I AM worried about is pine trees. Some are still very weak since Katrina. I have one about 15 feet from my bedroom. The limbs are all gone off of it since K, but I'm worried about the hundred ft. "stick" that is left.
For once I am glad I have no family here to worry about any more since they all are gone after K. One elderly aunt in N.O. and she was picked up and brought to Baton Rouge today. But, they said the wind may be as much as 100mph in BR, so it would be about the same here.

And speaking of gas...everyone here on this list had better go top off their gas asap. When this thing gets into the gulf, it is going to wipe out a lot of oil rigs. Then where it is hitting once it hits land is where most of the U.S.'s oil refineries are. I think gas will be at a premium after this things roars through here.

Barb0522 · 08-30-2008, 11:43 PM

We got to the hospital and went into Critical Care. Criss was in there with him feeding him. The nurse told us Brian was too young to visit in Critical Care (even though we told her he had been there two nights already). However they were getting ready to move him to a regular room so we waited and got to see him settled. He's in bad shape and in a lot of pain but at least Brian has no problem seeing him now that he is in a regular room. We'll go back tomorrow.

A friend and her son came over tonight and it was so nice to be able to talk to her about everything that has been going on. We had to drag the boys away since it was getting late. They were having so much fun swimming and playing the Wii that they didn't want to stop.

rebel - Thanks for the wishes. Yes, things are better. He's still swollen and getting oxygen. He's getting some insulin and a fair amount of morphine. I like his nurse. He seemed to accept me being there okay. I think he is just grateful that I brought Brian. I think it helped that his friend was there today and she's one that treats me okay so that helped. I do need to read my email from the other list but I haven't gotten to that today.

zeffryn · 08-30-2008, 11:52 PM

Cat - I'm worried too. DH and I are both trying to not let DS know how worried we are. He asked today why DH was putting boards over the windows....I told him that our pesky neighbors (his best friend) kept looking in our windows and we were sick of it!

We should be ok as far as trees go - ours are all relatively new and bendy. Flooding? I'm not sure. I know that Laf. has a LOT of low lying areas and I just hope that our cars/home isn't damaged by flooding....btw, I called our insurance today and made sure we had flood insurance on both our cars and house. Whew.

FIL is still trying to get back from Alabama - we'll see how long it takes him.

I don't know where we'll go if the power is out for weeks....I really don't. We really don't have any family that is close(r) than Minnesota and friends are full to the max with family staying with them. We'll figure something out.

I just hate this feeling of waiting. This anxiety is killing me. DH keeps telling me to get some sleep....yeah right.... I just keep thinking to myself "are we doing enough...is there more that can be done?"

Keep in touch, dear. I'll probably be up all night

KO · 08-30-2008, 11:53 PM

Hi Ladies Just wanted to check in and say our prayers are with the Southern Chicks Please be careful!

cottagebythesea · 08-30-2008, 11:59 PM

I was just watching the latest hurricane report on TWC. It sure doesn't sound good. My thoughts and prayers will be with all of you girls in the danger zone. Please try to let us know how you are, and also let me know if there's anything at all I can do to help.

zeffryn · 08-31-2008, 12:03 AM

in lighter news - I bought a 2 pint container of organic raspberries at Sam's club for 4.49 today. cha-ching.

cottagebythesea · 08-31-2008, 12:23 AM

We just spent $111 on 3 lobsters at a lobster pound that we had to stand in line over an hour for, then we had to eat outside while being eaten alive by mosquitoes because all the inside tables were taken, and half-way through the meal the sky opened up and thoroughly soaked us, and it was raining so hard on the way back to our hotel that we could barely see the road. When we pulled in, I think the stress really got to us because we just sat in the car and almost laughed ourselves sick over the entire situation.
I just had a long, hot shower and am sitting up in bed with a hot mug of Sleepytime tea beside me. I'm covered with a zillion mosquito bites but I'm feeling much, much better.

femmecreole · 08-31-2008, 12:24 AM

Uh, I have a feeling that when this is over with, I'll be on phase 1 again. I would have eaten the 2 pints of raspberries by now. My husband went to the store again today and came home with nothing but junk...pop tarts, cookies, candy etc...oh except for three boxes of SF popsicles for me....and I've already eaten half of one box. pure nerves. I wanted everything out of the freezer so I could load it up with bottles of water to freeze. Damn..guess I have 2 more boxes to eat by tomorrow, right???

Luckily I have enough cans of beans for several phase ones!!!! I am a bundle of nerves and have been "picking" all day long...nothing that I shouldn't eat, but probably too much of it.

zeffryn · 08-31-2008, 12:34 AM

I just finished the last of the raspberries. I just dumped them into a pint of yogurt....it's like a nerve smoothie.

I think next I'm going to dive into those chocolate chip cookies I made earlier.

The thing is...I'm not even hungry....my fingers just need something to do and eating really fills them up, along with typing.

Oh, and Cottage - $111 for 3 lobsters while getting soaked in rain and eaten alive by mosquitoes? Thanks...but no thanks. I like lobster, but definitely not that much.

I definitely don't think we have enough chocolate for a weeks worth of these nerves. I have about 40 million poptarts though and a 5 lb. bucket of pretzel rods.

Fat Melanie · 08-31-2008, 02:32 AM

Oh man, BF was telling me about what they were saying on the news earlier, about how bad this storm could potentially be! I told him how some of you Chicks live in that area and I hope all of you guys are okay. Are they really making all of you evacuate?? BF said your governor and etc said they won't leave the state until they make sure everyone has evacuated. (Is this true??) Best wishes to all of you in the path of the storm, I don't mean to sound corny but I truly truly hope everyone is okay.

On a lighter note, can the Monday thread be called "Mundane Monday Chat"?

Monday is so mundane.

*sending good wishes everyone's way* I'm gonna start paying attention to the news to keep up. I don't want anything bad to happen to anyone.

zeffryn · 08-31-2008, 02:56 AM

um.....I think he might be talking about the Mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin. NOLA is under a mandatory evacuation, as are most of the coastal parishes. I know that Mandy evacuated, as far as I know Cat is still staying and so are we. We are in Lafayette Parish in Lafayette city. So far, we are under a voluntary evac.

It's still a cat. 4, but is predicted to move on to Cat. 5 status sometime during the night. We should start feeling minor effects by tomorrow afternoon and tropical storm force winds/rain by late Sunday evening.

As bad as that sounds, they dissipate very quickly when on land. We're 50 miles from the coast and when it hits our city, it is expected to be a cat.2 (still nothing to f around with) but better than if we were in Houma or Intercoastal city.

We had a friend of ours who lives in Virginia call her parents in Dallas and they agreed to give us a room for awhile if we needed one....we'll make the decision tomorrow....although honestly, our area is rather safe and on relatively high ground (is anything in Louisiana actually high ground?)

Like a momma hen, I'm making sure everyone of our single, male friends has enough food and water and a safe place to stay. We may end up housing a really good friend of ours for a few nights. For some reason, I don't think we have enough food - even though we really have enough to feed a small army for about a month.....and that isn't even including the PBJ sandwiches (thank god I had ww bread in the freezer). DH laughs, but I might go out tomorrow and scrounge to see what else is available. We also have 15 gallons of drinking water, 2 bathtubs, a sink and a washer to fill up with water to use for watering plants, watering cats, flushing toilets, etc. if the water goes out.

DH has 3 propane tanks (overboard, much!) for our grill so we will have a way to heat food if necessary and our neighbor owns a gas station with a generator and an ice source. When our food can no longer be kept in the cooler with ice, we'll just grill it up!

This could very easily turn into a giant block party as none of our neighbors are leaving.

BTW, I gave DS his own personal flashlight that I bought just for this occasion....told him it was for our campout that was starting tonight....he was so proud. He is sleeping with it next to him on his pillow. He also loves sleeping in our bedroom....a rare treat for him.

--

as I am finally out of lemon yogurt and raspberries - a quart of yogurt was just a BIT more than I should have poured myself

and I've had too much tea...I'm going to try sleeping.

DS is looking too cute to not go snuggle with him.

cottagebythesea · 08-31-2008, 07:55 AM

Good morning,
It's looking like it's going to be a gorgeous day here for our last day in Maine. I'm letting everyone sleep in since we'll have a 12 hour drive back home later this afternoon. We have to get Caitlyn checked in at college at noon, then get her all unpacked and settled in, and there's a parent orientation tea from 3 - 4, then we're leaving after that. Boo hoo, it's going to be sad, but Monica and I feel so much better after being here and seeing the town and all. Caite sure did pick a gorgeous setting for her school, and I hope she enjoys her next 4 years here. I know I'll be up here often!